The Walking Dead Review by John Keegan

The Walking Dead 8x08: How It's Gotta Be

Written By:David Leslie Johnson and Angela Kang

Directed By:Michael E. Satrazemis

The first half of the eighth season has been
remarkably rough and slipshod. In
essence, the story is simple: Rick’s alliance builds off their successful
repulsion of the Saviors at the end of the previous season and launches an
attack on Sanctuary, but things eventually fall apart when the battle plan isn’t
followed. By the end of this episode,
the good guys have really taken it on the chin hard, but they are ready to
bounce back. And then the ground falls
out from under Rick’s feet. Sounds
compelling, right?

Only it has been anything but, given that Rick’s
plan is never properly communicated to give the audience a sense of whether or
not things are going well, the characters make idiotic decisions that lead
directly to the conflict lingering long beyond necessary, and even Negan
ultimately gets weakened yet again by threats that barely come to pass. The Scavengers are recruited over the course
of two episodes, just to run away almost immediately in this installment. It’s so confused and unfocused that it merely
underscores why many felt like the show needed a creative boost after the
drastic drop in ratings in the seventh season.

Of course, all of that culminated in yet
another extended episode that proved, once again, that it almost never works to
the benefit of this series when they do so.
Much of this episode felt like marking time, or padding out time, or
both; regardless, it felt like the episode could have been much shorter than an
hour than needing to be longer. And that
included the ridiculous “foreshadowing” that lacked so much subtlety that the
audience didn’t wonder at whether or not Carl was actually being killed off,
but why the producers would be so short-sighted as to alienate even more fans.

When I say that, I’m not talking only about the
story itself, though there are issues with the notion of removing Carl when he
has always been portrayed (and remains in the source material) as a symbol of
hope in the dark apocalyptic world.
Instead, it’s how the deed was done, and the ugly truths that are coming
out of the woodwork, despite the efforts by Scott Gimple and the rest of the
production staff to spin this as “necessary to Rick’s story”.

For one thing, despite hints from Gimple that
this was a mutual decision or a long-standing creative plan, this has been
completely debunked. For one thing,
Chandler Riggs not only didn’t ask to be released, he had been promised by the
Gimple himself that he would be around for at least three more seasons (which
would, presumably, be the remainder of the series at this rate). Riggs was convinced enough to buy a house
near the production in Georgia and plan his college life around those
promises. Then, before Riggs turned 18
and despite everything, Gimple informed the young actor and his parents that he
was being written out. (There is the
even more disturbing implication that his pay scale would change when he was
legally an adult, and this was Gimple’s way of avoiding that cost.)

If this decision smacks of desperation, of
coming up with something shocking to generate buzz on the level of Negan’s
introduction, as an attempt to use a high profile departure to help turn around
a massive ratings decline, then that’s probably because that’s the most logical
interpretation. What’s worse is that the
story elements that were introduced to help set the stage for Carl’s departure
not only don’t make a lot of sense given the timing and the massive war taking
place, but it insults the intelligence of the audience by happening outside of
the conflict that it has been asked to invest in for several episodes.

The explanation given by Gimple and others,
that this is meant to prove to Rick that it’s important to save lives for when
the war is over, so some measure of civility remains intact, falls entirely
flat. For one thing, Gimple admits that
he can’t understand why Rick lets certain people live at the end of the
conflict, and so he supposedly came up with this as a means to that end. But hasn’t Rick already been horrified by
Daryl’s draconian measures? Hasn’t Jesus
been upset by Maggie’s decisions to be more and more punitive? I could go on and on, but this season has
already beaten that message into the heads of the audience several times. Carl’s sudden decision to pursue mercy for a
random survivor doesn’t add much to the equation, especially when showing that
mercy to one of the Saviors would have at least tied his demise to the
conflict.

In other words, one is left to conclude that the
writers are more incompetent than imagined, the producers are utterly
untrustworthy, or both. And given the
ugliness that is being uncovered regarding the motives of the production staff,
how can one give any credence to the notion that there is an actual story being
told? Perhaps that’s why the episode was
also so dark as to be nearly unwatchable; it’s easier to hide how things are
pulling apart at the seams.

Our Grade:

D

The Good:

At least something finally happens

The Bad:

The way Carl/Chandler Riggs has been treated this season is beyond egregious

The writing this season has been a mess, and this episode brings that to a new level

Much of the action happens in darkness to the point of being impossible to follow

John Keegan aka "criticalmyth", is one of the hosts of the "Critical Myth" podcast heard here on VOG Network's radio feed Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can follow him on twitter at @criticalmyth

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